University  of  California. 

FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 

DR.    FRANCIS     LIEBKR. 

Professor  of  History  find  Law  in  Columbia  College,  New  York. 


THB  GIFT  OF 

^MICHAEL.    REESE, 

Of  San  Francisco. 
1ST  3. 


AN 


ORATION 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 


OF   THE 


DECLARATION  OF  THE  INDEPENDENCE 


OP 


THE    UNITED    STATES    OF   AMERICA. 


BY  EDWARD  EVERETT. 


SECOND  EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
CUMMINGS,    MILLIARD,    AND    COMPANY. 

1826. 


DISTRICT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,  TO  WIT: 

District  Clerk's  Office. 

BE  it  remembered,  that  on  the  eighteenth  day  of  July,  A  D.  1826,  and  in  the 
fifty-first  year  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  Cummings, 
Billiard,  "Sf  Co.  of  the  said  district,  have  deposited  in  this  office  the  title  of  a  book, 
he  right  whereof  they  claim  as  proprietors,  in  the  words  following,  to  wit : — 

"  An  Oration  delivered  at  Cambridge  on  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  the  Independence  of  the  Uuited  States  of  America.  By  Edward  Everett " 

In  conformity  to  the  Act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  entitled,  "  An  Act 
for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  maps,  charts,  and  books 
to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies,  during  the  times  therein  mentioned," 
and  also  to  an  Act,  entitled,  "  An  Act  supplementary  to  an  Act,  entitled,  '  An  Act  for 
the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  maps,  charts,  and  books, 
to  the  authors  and  proprietors  ot  such  copies  during  the  times  therein  mentioned  ;' 
and  extending  the  benefits  thereof  to  the  arts  of  designing,  engraving,  and  etching 
historical  and  oilier  prints." 

JNO.  W.  DAVIS, 
Clerk  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE. 

From  the  University  Press — By  Hilliard  &  Metcalf. 


Cambridge,  July  6, 1826. 
SIR, 

At  a  meeting  of  citizens  of  Cambridge  and  the  vicinity  on 
the  4th  of  July,  the  following  vote  was  passed,  which,  by  direction  of 
the  committee  thereby  appointed,  I  beg  leave  to  communicate  to  you. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c. 

S.  P.  P.  FAY. 
The  Hon.  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

VOTED,  That 

The  Hon.  Mr.  FAT, 

"   Mr.  FULLER, 
"   Mr.  STEARNS, 
Dr   HEDGE, 
Mr  WHIFFLE 

be  a  Committee  to  present  to  the  Hon.  EDWARD  EVERETT  the  thanks 
of  this  meeting  for  the  ORATION  this  day  delivered  by  him,  and 
respectfully  to  request  that  he  will  permit  the  same  to  be  published. 


ORATION. 


FELLOW  CITIZENS, 

IT  belongs  to  us,  with  strong  propriety,  to 
celebrate  this  day.  The  town  of  Cambridge,  and 
the  county  of  Middlesex,  are  filled  with  the  vestiges 
of  the  Revolution  ;  whithersoever  we  turn  our  eyes, 
we  behold  some  memento  of  its  glorious  scenes. 
Within  the  walls,  in  which  we  are  now  assembled, 
was  convened  the  first  provincial  Congress,  after  its 
adjournment  at  Concord.  The  rural  magazine  at 
Medford  reminds  us  of  one  of  the  earliest  acts  of 
British  aggression.  The  march  of  both  divisions  of 
the  Royal  army,  on  the  memorable  nineteenth  of 
April,  was  through  the  limits  of  Cambridge  ;  in  the 

k  neighbouring  t#wns  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  the 
first  blood  of  the  Revolution  was  shed ;  in  West 
Cambridge,  the  Royal  convoy  of  provisions  was,  the 
same  day,  gallantly  surprised  by  the  aged  citizens, 
who  staid  to  protect  their  homes,  while  their  sons 
pursued  the  foe.  Here  the  first  American  army  was 
formed  ;  from  this  place,  on  the  seventeenth  of  June, 
1 


was  detached  the  Spartan  band,  that  immortalized 
the  heights  of  Charlestown,  consecrated  that  day, 
with  blood  and  fire,  to  the  cause  of  American  liberty* 
Beneath  the  venerable  elm,  which  still  shades  the 
southwestern  corner  of  the  common,  General  Wash 
ington  first  unsheathed  his  sword  at  the  head  of  an 
American  army,  and  to  thai  seat*  was  wont  every 
Sunday  to  repair,  to  join  in  the  supplications  which 
were  made  for  the  welfare  of  his  country. 

How  changed  is  now  the  scene !  The  foe  is 
gone  !  The  din  and  the  desolation  of  war  are 
passed ;  Science  has  long  resumed  her  station  in 
the  shades  of  our  venerable  University,  no  longer 
glittering  with  arms  ;  the  anxious  war-council  is  no 
longer  in  session,  to  offer  a  reward  for  the  discovery 
of  the  best  mode  of  making  saltpetre, — an  unpromis 
ing  stage  of  hostilities,  when  an  army  of  twenty 
thousand  men  is  in  the  field  in  front  of  the  foe  ;  the  tall 
grass  now  waves  in  the  trampled  sallyports  of  some 
of  the  rural  redoubts,  that  form  a  part  of  the  simple 
lines  of  circumvallation,  within  which  a  half-armed 
American  militia  held  the  flower  of  the  British  army 
blockaded  ;  the  plough  has  done,  what  the  English 
batteries  could  not  do, — has  levelled  others  of  them 
with  the  earth ;  and  the  MEN,  the  great  and  good 
men,  their  warfare  is  over,  and  they  have  gone  quietly 
down  to  the  dust  they  redeemed  from  oppression. 

*  The  first  wall  pew,  on  the  right  hand  of  the  pulpit. 


3 

At  the  close  of  a  half  century,  since  the  declara 
tion  of  our  Independence,  we  are  assembled  to 
commemorate  that  great  and  happy  event.  We 
come  together,  not  because  it  needs,  but  because  it 
deserves  these  acts  of  celebration.  We  do  not  meet 
each  other,  and  exchange  our  felicitations,  because 
we  should  otherwise  fall  into  forgetfulness  of  this 
auspicious  era  ;  but  because  we  owe  it  to  our  fathers 
and  to  our  children,  to  mark  its  return  with  grateful 
festivities.  The  major  part  of  this  assembly  is 
composed  of  those,  who  had  not  yet  engaged  in  the 
active  scenes  of  life,  when  the  Revolution  com 
menced.  We  come  not  to  applaud  our  own  work, 
but  to  pay  a  filial  tribute  to  the  deeds  of  our  fathers. 
It  was  for  their  children,  that  the  heroes  and  sages 
of  the  Revolution  laboured  and  bled.  They  were 
too  wise  not  to  know,  that  it  was  not  personally 
their  own  cause,  in  which  they  were  embarked ; 
they  felt  that  they  were  engaging  in  an  enterprise, 
which  an  entire  generation  must  be  too  short  to 
bring  to  its  mature  and  perfect  issue.  The  most 
they  could  promise  themselves  was,  that,  having  cast 
forth  the  seed  of  liberty  ;  having  shielded  its  tender 
germ  from  the  stern  blasts  that  beat  upon  it ;  having 
watered  it  with  the  tears  of  waiting  eyes,  and  the 
blood  of  brave  hearts  ;  their  children  might  gather 
the  fruit  of  its  branches,  while  those  who  planted  it 
should  moulder  in  peace  beneath  its  shade. 


Nor  was  it  only  in  this,  that  we  discern  their 
disinterestedness,  their  heroic  forgetfulness  of  self. 
Not  only  was  the  independence,  for  which  they 
struggled,  a  great  and  arduous  adventure,  of  which 
they  were  to  encounter  the  risk,  and  others  to  enjoy 
the  benefits ;  but  the  oppressions,  which  roused 
them,  had  assumed,  in  their  day,  no  worse  form 
than  that  of  a  pernicious  principle.  No  intolerable 
acts  of  oppression  had  ground  them  to  the  dust. 
They  were  not  slaves,  rising  in  desperation  from 
beneath  the  agonies  of  the  lash  ;  but  free  men, 
snuffing  from  afar  "  the  tainted  gale  of  tyranny." 
The  worst  encroachments,  on  which  the  British 
ministry  had  ventured,  might  have  been  borne,  con 
sistently  with  the  practical  enjoyment  of  many  of 
the  advantages,  resulting  from  good  government. 
On  the  score  of  calculation  alone,  that  generation 
had  much  better  have  paid  the  duties  on  glass, 
painters'  colours,  stamped  paper,  and  tea,  than  have 
plunged  into  the  expenses  of  the  Revolutionary  war. 
But  they  thought  not  of  shuffling  off  upon  posterity 
the  burden  of  resistance.  They  well  understood  the 
part,  which  Providence  had  assigned  to  them.  They 
perceived  that  they  were  called  to  discharge  a  high 
and  perilous  office  to  the  cause  of  Freedom ;  that 
their  hands  were  elected  to  strike  the  blow,  for 
which  near  two  centuries  of  preparation — never  re 
mitted,  though  often  unconscious — had  been  making? 


on  one  side  or  the  other  of  the  Atlantic.  They 
felt  that  the  colonies  had  now  reached  that  stage  in 
their  growth,  when  the  difficult  problem  of  colonial 
government  must  be  solved ;  difficult,  I  call  it,  for 
such  it  is  to  the  statesman,  whose  mind  is  not  suffi 
ciently  enlarged  for  the  idea,  that  a  wise  colonial 
government  must  naturally  and  rightfully  end  in  in 
dependence  ;  that  even  a  mild  and  prudent  sway,  on 
the  part  of  the  mother  country,  furnishes  no  reason 
for  not  severing  the  bands  of  the  colonial  subjection  ; 
and  that  when  the  rising  state  has  passed  the  period 
of  adolescence,  the  only  alternative  which  remains, 
is  that  of  a  peaceable  separation,  or  a  convulsive 
rupture. 

The  British  ministry,  at  that  time  weaker  than  it 
had  ever  been  since  the  infatuated  reign  of  James 
II,  had  no  knowledge  of  political  science,  but  that 
which  they  derived  from  the  text  of  official  records. 
They  drew  their  maxims,  as  it  Was  happily  said  of 
one  of  them,  that  he  did  his  measures,  from  the  file. 
They  heard  that  a  distant  province  had  resisted  the 
execution  of  an  act  of  parliament.  Indeed,  and 
what  is  the  specific,  in  cases  of  resistence  ? — a 
military  force  ; — and  two  more  regiments  are  order 
ed  to  Boston.  Again  they  hear,  that  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  Bay  has  taken  counsels 
subversive  of  the  allegiance  due  to  the  crown.  A  case 
of  a  refractory  corporation ; — what  is  to  be  done  ? 


First  try  a  mandamus ;  and  if  that  fails,  seize  the 
franchises  into  his  Majesty's  hands.  They  never 
asked  the  great  questions,  whether  nations,  like 
man,  have  not  their  principles  of  growth ;  whether 
Providence  has  assigned  no  laws  to  regulate  the 
changes  in  the  condition  of  that  most  astonishing  of 
human  things,  a  nation  of  kindred  men.  They  did 
not  inquire,  I  will  not  say  whether  it  were  rightful 
and  expedient,  but  whether'  it  were  practicable,  to 
give  law  across  the  Atlantic,  to  a  people  who  pos-r 
sessed  within  themselves  every  imaginable  element 
of  self-government ; — a  people  rocked  in  the  cradle 
of  liberty,  brought  up  to  hardship,  inheriting  nothing 
but  their  rights  on  earth,  and  their  hopes  in  heaven. 
But  though  the  rulers  of  Britain  appear  not  to 
have  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  great  principles  in 
volved  in  these  questions,  our  fathers  had  asked  and 
answered  them.  They  perceived,  with  the  rapidity 
of  intuition,  that  the  hour  of  separation  had  come ; 
because  a  principle  was  assumed  by  the  British 
government,  which  put  an  instantaneous  check  to 
the  further  growth  of  liberty.  Either  the  race  of 
civilized  man  happily  planted  on  our  shores,  at  first 
slowly  and  painfully  reared,  but  at  length  auspi 
ciously  multiplying  in  America,  is  destined  never  to 
constitute  a  free  and  independent  state ;  or  these 
measures  must  be  resisted,  which  go  to  bind  it,  in  a 
mild  but  abject  colonial  vassalage.  Either  the  hope 


must  be  forever  abandoned,  the  hope  that  had  been 
brightening  and  kindling  toward  assurance,  like  the 
glowing  skies  of  the  morning, — the  hope  that  a  new 
centre  of  civilization  was  to  be  planted  on  the  new 
continent,  at  which  the  social  and  political  institu 
tions  of  the  world  may  be  brought  to  the  stand 
ard  of  reason  and  truth,  after  thousands  of  years  of 
degeneracy? — either  this  hope  must  be  abandoned, 
and  forever,  or  the  battle  was  now  to  be  fought, 
first  in  the  political  assemblies,  and  then,  if  need  be, 
in  the  field. 

In  the  halls  of  legislation,  scarcely  can  it  be 
said  that  the  battle  was  fought.  A  spectacle  in 
deed  seemed  to  be  promised  to  the  civilized  world, 
of  breathless  interest,  and  uncalculated  consequence. 
"  You  are  placed,"  said  the  provincial  Congress 
of  Massachusetts,  in  their  address  to  the  inhabitants 
of  December  4th,  1774,  an  address  promulgated  at 
the  close  of  a  session  held  in  this  very  house,  where 
we  are  now  convened,  "  You  are  placed  by  Provi 
dence  in  a  post  of  honour,  because  it  is  a  post  of 
danger  ;  and  while  struggling  for  the  noblest  objects, 
the  liberties  of  our  country,  the  happiness  of  pos 
terity,  and  the  rights  of  human  nature,  the  eyes,  not 
only  of  North  America  and  the  whole  British  em 
pire,  but  of  all  Europe,  are  upon  you."  *  A  mighty 
question  of  political  right  was  at  issue,  between  the 
two  hemispheres.  Europe  and  America,  in  the  face 

*  Massachusetts  State  Papers,  p.  416. 


of  mankind,  are  going  to  plead  the  great  cause,  on 
which  the  fate  of  popular  government  forever   is 
suspended.     One  circumstance,  and  one  alone  exists^ 
to  diminish  the  interest  of  the  contention — the  per 
ilous  inequality  of  the  parties — an  inequality  far  ex 
ceeding  that,  which  gives  animation  to  a  contest ; 
and  so  great  as  to  destroy  the  hope  of  an  ably  waged 
encounter.     On  the  one  side  were  arrayed  the  two 
houses  of  the  British  parliament,  the  modern  school 
of  political  eloquence,  the  arena  where  great  minds 
had  for  a  century  and  a  half  strenuously   wrestled 
themselves  into  strength  and  power,  and  in  better 
days  the   common  and  upright  chancery  of  an  em 
pire,  on  which  the  sun  never  set.     Upon  the  other 
side  rose  up  the  colonial  assemblies  of  Massachu 
setts  and  Virginia,  and   the  continental  congress  of 
Philadelphia,  composed  of  men  whose  training  had 
been  within  a  small  provincial  circuit ;    who  had 
never  before  felt  the   inspiration,  which  the  con 
sciousness  of  a  station  before   the  world  imparts ; 
who  brought  no  power  into  the  contest  but  that 
which  they  drew  from  their  cause  and  their  bosoms. 
It  is  by  champions  like  these,  that  the  great  princi 
ples   of    representative    government,   of   chartered 
rights,  and  constitutional  liberty,  are  to  be  discuss 
ed  ;  and  surely  never,  in  the  annals  of  national  con 
troversy,  was  exhibited  a  triumph  so  complete  of 
the  seemingly  weaker  party,  a  rout  so  disastrous  of 


the  stronger.  Often  as  it  has  been  repeated,  it  will 
bear  another  repetition  ;  it  never  ought  to  be  omitted 
in  the  history  of  constitutional  liberty  ;  it  ought  es 
pecially  to  be  repeated  this  day ; — the  various  ad 
dresses,  petitions,  and  appeals,  the  correspondence, 
the  resolutions,  the  legislative  and  popular  debates, 
from  1764,  to  the  declaration  of  independence,  pre 
sent  a  maturity  of  political  wisdom,  a  strength  of  ar 
gument,  a  gravity  of  style,  a  manly  eloquence,  and  a 
moral  courage,  of  which  unquestionably  the  modern 
world  affords  no  other  example.  This  meed  of 
praise,  substantially  accorded  at  the  time  by  Chat 
ham,  in  the  British  parliament,  may  well  be  repeat 
ed  by  us.  For  most  of  the  venerated  men  to  whom 
it  is  paid,  it  is  but  a  pious  tribute  to  departed  worth. 
The  Lees  and  the  Henrys,  Otis,  Quincy,  Warren, 
and  Samuel  Adams,  the  men  who  spoke  those 
words  of  thrilling  power,  which  raised  and  ruled  the 
storm  of  resistance,  and  rang  like  the  voice  of  fate 
across  the  Atlantic,  are  beyond  the  reach  of  our 
praise.  To  most  of  them  it  was  granted  to  witness 
some  of  the  fruits  of  their  labors  ;  such  fruit  as 
revolutions  do  not  often  bear.  Others  departed  at 
an  untimely  hour,  or  nobly  fell  in  the  onset ;  too 
soon  for  their  country,  too  soon  for  liberty,  too  soon 
for  every  thing  but  their  own  undying  fame.  But 
all  are  not  gone  ;  some  still  survive  among  us ;  the 
favored,  enviable  men,  to  hail  the  jubilee  of  the  in- 
2 


10 

dependence  they  declared.  Go  back,  fellow  citi 
zens,  to  that  day,  when  Jefferson  and  Adams 
composed  the  sub-committee,  who  reported  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Think  of  the  mingled 
sensations  of  that  proud  but  anxious  day,  compared 
to  the  joy  of  this.  What  honor,  what  crown,  what 
treasure,  could  the  world  and  all  its  kingdoms  af 
ford,  compared  with  the  honor  and  happiness  of 
having  been  united  in  that  commission,  and  living 
to  see  its  most  wavering  hopes  turned  into  glorious 
reality.  Venerable  men !  you  have  outlived  the 
dark  days,  which  followed  your  more  than  heroic 
deed  ;  you  have  outlived  your  own  strenuous  con 
tention,  who  should  stand  first  among  the  people, 
whose  liberty  you  vindicated.  You  have  lived  to 
bear  to  each  other  the  respect,  which  the  nation 
bears  to  you  both  ;  and  each  has  been  so  happy  as 
to  exchange  the  honorable  name  of  the  leader  of  a 
party,  for  that  more  honorable  one,  the  Father  of 
his  Country.  While  this  our  tribute  of  respect,  on 
the  jubilee  of  our  independence,  is  paid  to  the  grey 
hairs  of  the  venerable  survivor  in  our  neighbourhood  ; 
let  it  not  less  heartily  be  sped  to  him,  whose  hand 
traced  the  lines  of  that  sacred  charter,  which,  to  the 
end  of  time,  has  made  this  day  illustrious.  And  is 
an  empty  profession  of  respect  all  that  we  owe  to 
the  man,  who  can  show  the  original  draught  of  the 
Declaration  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States 


11 

of  America,  in  his  own  handwriting  ?  Ought  not  a 
title-deed  like  this  to  become  the  acquisition  of  the 
nation  ?  Ought  it  not  to  be  laid  up  in  the  archives 
of  the  people  ?  Ought  not  the  price,  at  which  it  is 
bought,  to  be  the  ease  and  comfort  of  the  old  age  of 
him  who  drew  it  ?  Ought  not  he,  who  at  the  age  of 
thirty  declared  the  independence  of  his  country,  at 
the  age  of  eighty,  to  be  secured  by  his  country  in 
the  enjoyment  of  his  own  ?  * 

Nor  let  us  forget,  on  the  return  of  this  eventful 
day,  the  men,  who,  when  the  conflict  of  counsel 
was  over,  stood  forward  in  that  of  arms.  Yet  let 
me  not  by  faintly  endeavouring  to  sketch,  do  deep 
injustice  to  the  story  of  their  exploits.  The  efforts 
of  a  life  would  scarce  suffice  to  paint  out  this  pic 
ture,  in  all  its  astonishing  incidents,  in  all  its  min 
gled  colors  of  sublimity  and  woe,  of  agony  and  tri 
umph.  But  the  age  of  commemoration  is  at  hand. 
The  voice  of  our  fathers'  blood  begins  to  cry  to  us, 
from  beneath  the  soil  which  it  moistened.  Time 
is  bringing  forward,  in  their  proper  relief,  the  men 
and  the  deeds  of  that  high-souled  day.  The  gene 
ration  of  contemporary  worthies  is  gone  ;  the  crowd 
of  the  unsignalized  great  and  good  disappears ; 
and  the  leaders  in  war  as  well  as  council,  are  seen, 
in  Fancy's  eye,  to  take  their  stations  on  the  mount 
of  Remembrance.  They  come  from  the  embattled 
cliffs  of  Abraham  ;  they  start  from  the  heaving  sods 

*  See  Note  at  the  end. 


of  Bunker7s  Hill ;  they  gather  from  the  blazing  lines 
of  Saratoga  and  York  town,  from  the  blood-dyed 
waters  of  the  Brandy  wine,  from  the  dreary  snow7s 
of  Valley  Forge,  and  all  the  hard  fought  fields  of 
the  war.  With  all  their  wounds  and  all  their  hon 
ors,  they  rise  and  plead  with  us,  for  their  brethren 
who  survive  ;  and  bid  us,  if  indeed  we  cherish  the 
memory  of  those,  who  bled  in  our  cause,  to  show 
our  gratitude,  not  by  sounding  words,  but  by  stretch 
ing  out  the  strong  arm  of  the  country's  prosperity, 
to  help  the  veteran  survivors  gently  down  to  their 
graves. 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  from  sentiments,  on  which 
it  is  unavailing  to  dwell.  The  fiftieth  return  of 
this  all-important  day,  appears  to  enjoin  on  us  to 
reassert  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  Have  we  met,  fellow-citizens,  to  com 
memorate  merely  the  successful  termination  of  a 
war  ?  Certainly  not ;  the  war  of  1756  was,  in  its 
duration,  nearly  equal,  and  signalized  in  America 
by  the  most  brilliant  achievements  of  the  provincial 
arms.  But  no  one  wTould  attempt  to  prevent  that 
war,  with  all  its  glorious  incidents,  from  gradually 
sinking  into  the  shadows,  which  time  throws  back 
on  the  deeds  of  men.  Do  we  celebrate  the  anni 
versary  of  our  independence,  merely  because  a  vast 
region  was  severed  from  an  European  empire,  and 
established  a  government  for  itself?  Scarcely  even 


13 

this ;  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  a  region  larger 
than  the  old  United  States, — the  almost  instanta 
neous  conversion  of  a  vast  Spanish  colonial  waste, 
into  free  and  prosperous  members  of  our  republican 
federation, — the  whole  effected  by  a  single  happy 
exercise  of  the  treaty-making  power, — this  is  an 
event,  in  nature  not  wholly  unlike,  in  importance 
not  infinitely  beneath  the  separation  of  the  colonies 
from  England,  regarded  merely  as  a  historical  trans 
action.  But  no  one  thinks  of  commemorating  with 
festivals  the  anniversary  of  this  cession  ;  perhaps 
not  ten  who  hear  me  recollect  the  date  of  the  treaty 
by  which  it  was  effected  ;  although  it  is  unquestion 
ably  the  most  important  occurrence  in  our  history, 
since  the  declaration  of  independence,  and  will  ren 
der  the  administration  of  Mr  Jefferson  memorable, 
as  long  as  our  republic  shall  endure. 

But  it  is  not  merely  nor  chiefly  the  military  success 
nor  the  political  event,  which  we  commemorate  on 
these  patriotic  anniversaries.  It  is  to  mistake  the 
principle  of  our  celebration  to  speak  of  its  object, 
either  as  a  trite  theme,  or  as  one  among  other  im 
portant  and  astonishing  incidents,  of  the  same  kind, 
in  the  world.  The  declaration  of  the  independence 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  considered,  on 
the  one  hand,  as  the  consummation  of  a  long  train 
of  measures  and  counsels — preparatory,  even  though 
unconsciously,  of  this  event, — and  on  the  other  hand. 


14 

as  the  foundation  of  the  systems  of  government, 
which  have  happily  been  established  in  our  beloved 
country,  deserves  commemoration,  as  the  most  im 
portant  event,  humanly  speaking,  in  the  history  of 
the  world ;  as  forming  the  era,  from  which  the 
establishment  of  government  on  a  rightful  foundation 
is  destined  universally  to  date.  Looking  upon  the 
declaration  of  independence  as  the  one  prominent 
event,  which  is  to  represent  the  American  system 
(and  history  will  so  look  upon  it),  I  deem  it  right  in 
itself  and  seasonable  this  day  to  assert,  that,  while 
all  other  political  revolutions,  reforms,  and  improve 
ments  have  been  in  various  ways  of  the  nature  of 
palliatives  and  alleviations  of  systems  essentially  and 
irremediably  vicious,  this  alone  is  the  great  discove 
ry,  in  political  science  ;  the  Newtonian  theory  of 
government,  toward  which  the  minds  of  all  honest 
and  sagacious  statesmen  in  other  times  had  strained, 
but  without  success ;  the  practical  fulfilment  of  all 
the  theories  of  political  perfection,  which  had  amused 
the  speculations  and  eluded  the  grasp  of  every  for 
mer  period  and  people.  And  although  assuredly 
this  festive  hour  affords  but  little  scope  for  dry  dis 
quisition,  and  shall  not  be  engrossed  by  me  with 
abstract  speculation,  yet  I  shall  not  think  I  wander 
from  the  duties  of  the  day,  in  dwelling  briefly  on 
the  chain  of  ideas,  by  which  we  reach  this  great 
conclusion. 


15 

The  political  organization  of  a  people  is  of  all 
matters  of  temporal  concernment  the  most  import 
ant.  Drawn  together  into  that  great  assemblage, 
which  we  call  a  nation,  by  the  social  principle,, 
some  mode  of  organization  must  exist  among  men ; 
and  on  that  organization  depends  more  directly, 
more  collectively,  more  permanently,  than  on  any 
thing  else,  the  condition  of  the  individual  members 
that  make  up  the  community.  On  the  political  or 
ganization,  in  which  a  people  shall  for  generations 
have  been  reared,  it  mainly  depends,  whether  we 
shall  behold  in  one  of  the  brethren  of  the  human 
family,  the  New  Hollander,  making  a  nauseous  meal 
from  the  worms  which  he  extracts  from  a  piece  of 
rotten  wood ;  *  or  the  African  cutting  out  the  under 
jaw  of  his  captive  to  be  strung  on  a  wire,  as  a  tro 
phy  of  victory,  while  the  mangled  wretch  is  left  to 
bleed  to  death,  on  the  field  of  battle  ;  f  or  whether 
we  shall  behold  him  social,  civilized,  Christian ; 
scarcely  faded  from  that  perfect  image,  in  wrhich  at 
the  divine  purpose,  "  Let  us  make  man," 

" in  beauty  clad, 

With  health  in  every  vein, 

And  reason  throned  upon  his  brow, 

Stepped  forth  immortal  man." 

1  am  certainly  aware  that  between  the  individuals 
that  compose  a  nation,  and  the  nation  as  an  organ 
ized  body,  there  are  action  and  reaction : — that  if 

*  Malthus's  Essay  on  Population,  vol.  i.  p.  33.  Amer.  ed. 
f  Edwards's  History  of  the  West  Indies,  vol.  ii.  p.  68.  3d  ed. 


16 

political  institutions  affect  the  individual,  individuals 
are  sometimes  gifted  with  power,  and  seize  on  op 
portunities,  most  essentially  to  modify  institutions  ; — 
nor  am  I  at  all  disposed  to  agitate  the  scholastic 
question,  which  was  first  in  the  order  of  nature  or 
time,  men  forming  governments,  or  governments  de 
termining  the  condition  of  men.  But  having  long 
acted  and  reacted  upon  each  other,  it  needs  no  ar 
gument  to  prove,  that  political  institutions  get  to  be 
infinitely  the  most  important  agent  in  fixing  the 
condition  of  individuals,  and  even  in  determining  in 
what  manner  and  to  what  extent  individual  capacity 
shall  be  exerted  and  individual  character  formed. 
While  other  causes  do  unquestionably  operate, — 
some  of  them,  such  as  national  descent,  physical 
race,  climate,  and  geographical  position,  very  power 
fully  ;  yet  of  none  of  them  is  the  effect  constant, 
uniform,  and  prompt ; — while  I  believe  it  is  impossi 
ble  to  point  out  an  important  change  in  the  political 
organization  of  a  people,  a  change  by  which  it  has 
been  rendered  more  or  less  favorable  to  liberty, 
without  discovering  a  correspondent  effect  on  their 
prosperity. 

Such  is  the  infinite  importance  to  the  nations  of 
men  of  the  political  organization  which  prevails 
among  them.  The  most  momentous  practical  ques 
tion  therefore  of  course  is,  in  what  way  a  people 
shall  determine  the  political  organization  under 


17 

which  it  will  live  ;  or  in  still  broader  terms,  what  is 
a  right  foundation  of  government.  Till  the  establish 
ment  of  the  American  constitutions,  this  question  had 
received  but  one  answer  in  the  world ;  I  mean  but 
one,  which  obtained  for  any  length  of  time  and 
among  any  numerous  people  ;  and  that  answer  was, 
force'.  '  The  right  of  the  strongest  was  the  only  foot 
ing  on  which  the  governments  of  the  ancient  and 
modern  nations  were  in  fact  placed  ;  and  the  only 
effort  of  the  theorists  was,  to  disguise  the  simple 
and  somewhat  startling  doctrine  of  the  right  of  the 
strongest,  by  various  mystical  or  popular  fictions, 
which  in  no  degree  altered  its  real  nature.  Of 
these  the  only  tw6  worthy  to  detain  us,  on  the  pres 
ent  occasion,  are  those  of  the  two  great  English 
political  parties,  the  whigs  and  the  tories,  as  they 
are  called,  by  names  not  unlike,  in  dignity  and  sig 
nificance,  to  the  doctrines  which  are  designated  by 
them.  The  tories  taught  that  the  only  foundation 
of  government  was  "  divine  right ; "  and  this  is  the 
same  notion,  which  is  still  inculcated  on  the  conti 
nent  of  Europe  ;  though  the  delicate  ears  of  the  age 
are  flattered  by  the  somewhat  milder  term,  legit 
imacy.  The  whigs  maintained,  that  the  foundation 
of  government  was  an  "  original  contract ;"  but  of 
this  contract  the  existing  organization  was  the  re 
cord  and  the  evidence  ;  and  the  obligation  was 
perpetually  binding.  It  may  deserve  the  passing 
3 


if 


18 

remark,  therefore,  that  in  reality  the  doctrine  of  the 
whigs  in  England  is  a  little  less  liberal  than  that  of 
the  tories.  To  say  that  the  will  of  God  is  the  war 
rant,  by  which  the  king  and  his  hereditary  counsel 
lors  govern  the  land,  is,  to  be  sure,  in  a  practical 
sense,  what  the  illustrious  sage  of  the  revolution, 
surviving  in  our  neighbourhood,  dared  as  early  as 
1765,  to  pronounce  it,  "dark  ribaldry."  But  in  a 
merely  speculative  sense  it  may,  without  offence,  be 
said,  that  government,  like  every  thing  else,  subsists 
by  the  Divine  will ;  and  in  this  acceptation,  there  is 
a  certain  elevation  and  unction  in  the  sentiment. 
But  to  say  that  the  form  of  government  is  matter  of 
original  compact  with  the  people  ;  that  my  ances 
tors,  ages  ago,  agreed  that  they  and  their  posterity, 
to  the  end  of  time,  should  give  up  to  a  certain  line 
of  princes  the  rule  of  the  state ;  that  no  right  re 
mains  of  revising  this  compact ;  that  nothing  but 
extreme  necessity,  a  necessity  which  it  is  treason 
able  even  to  attempt  to  define  beforehand,  justifies  a 
departure  from  this  compact,  in  which  no  provision 
is  made  that  the  will  of  the  majority  should  be  done, 
but  the  contrary  ; — a  doctrine  like  this,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  while  it  is  in  substance  as  servile  as  the  other, 
has  the  disadvantage  of  affecting  a  liberality  not 
borne  out  by  the  truth. 

And  now,  fellow  citizens,  I  think  I  speak  the  words 
of  truth  and  soberness,  without  color  or  exaggera- 


19 

tion,  when  I  say,  that  before  the  establishment  of 
our  American  constitutions,  this  tory  doctrine  of  the 
Divine  right  was  the  most  common,  and  this  whig 
doctrine  of  the  original  contract  was  professedly 
the  most  liberal  doctrine,  ever  maintained  by  any 
political  party  in  any  powerful  state.  I  do  not  mean 
that  in  some  of  the  little  Grecian  republics,  during 
their  short-lived  noon  of  liberty  and  glory,  nothing 
better  was  practised ;  nor  that,  in  other  times  and 
places,  speculative  politicians  had  not  in  their  closets 
dreamed  of  a  better  foundation  of  government.  But 
I  do  mean,  that,  whereas  the  whigs  in  England  are 
the  party  of  politicians  who  have  enjoyed,  by  gen 
eral  consent,  the  credit  of  inculcating  a  more  liberal 
system,  this  precious  notion  of  the  compact  is  the 
extent  to  which  their  liberality  went. 

It  is  plain,  whichever  of  these  solemn  phrases — 
"  divine  right"  or  "  original  compact " — we  may  pre 
fer  to  use,  that  the  right  of  the  strongest  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  both,  in  the  same  way  and  to  the 
same  degree.  The  doctrine  of  the  Divine  right  gives 
to  the  ruler  authority  to  sustain  himself  against  the 
people,  not  merely  because  resistance  is  unlawful, 
but  because  it  is  sacrilegious.  The  doctrine  of  the 
compact  denounces  every  attempted  change  in  the 
person  of  the  prince  as  a  breach  of  faith,  and  as 
such  also  not  only  treasonable  but  immoral.  When 
a  conflict  ensues,  force  alone,  of  course,  decides 


20 

which  party  shall  prevail ;  and  when  force  has  so 
decided,  all  the  sanctions  of  the  divine  will  and  of 
the  social  compact  revive  in  favor  of  the  successful 
party.  Even  the  statute  legislation  of  England, 
although  somewhat  coy  of  unveiling  the  chaste  mys 
teries  of  the  common  law,  allows  the  successful 
usurper  to  claim  the  allegiance  of  the  subject,  in  as 
full  a  manner  as  it  could  be  done  by  a  lawful  sove 
reign. 

Nothing  is  wanting  to  fill  up  this  sketch  of  other 
governments,  but  to  consider  what  is  the  form  in 
which  force  is  exercised  to  sustain  them  ;  and  this 
is  that  of  a  standing  army ; — at  this  moment,  the 
chief  support  of  every  government  on  earth,  except 
our  own.     As  popular  violence, — the  unrestrained 
and  irresistible  force  of  the  mass  of  men,  long  op 
pressed   and   late  awakened,  and   bursting   in   its 
wrath  all  barriers  of  law   and  humanity, — is  un 
happily  the  usual  instrument  by  which  the  intol 
erable  abuses  of  a  corrupt  government  are  remov 
ed  ;  so  the  same  blind  force  of  the  same  fearful  mul 
titude,  designedly  kept  in  ignorance  both  of  their 
duty  and  their  privileges  as  citizens,  employed  in  a 
form  somewhat  different  indeed,  but  far  more  dread 
ful,  that  of  a  mercenary  standing  army,  is  the  instru 
ment  by  which  corrupt  governments  are  sustained. 
The  deplorable  scenes  which  marked  the  earlier 
stages  of  the  French  revolution  have  called   the 


21 

attention  of  this  age  to  the  fearful  effects  of  popular 
violence  ;  and  the  minds  of  men  have  recoiled  at 
the  dismay  which  leads  the  van,  and  the  desola 
tion  which  marks  the  progress  of  an  infuriated  mob. 
But  the  power  of  the  mob  is  transient ;  the  rising 
sun  most  commonly  scatters  its  mistrustful  ranks  ; 
the  difficulty  of  subsistence  drives  its  members  asun 
der  ;  and  it  is  only  while  it  exists  in  mass,  that  it 
is  terrible.  But  there  is  a  form,  in  which  the  mob 
is  indeed  portentous ;  when  to  all  its  native  terrors 
it  adds  the  force  of  a  frightful  permanence  ;  when, 
by  a  regular  organization,  its  strength  is  so  curiously 
divided,  and  by  a  strict  discipline  its  parts  are  so* 
easily  combined,  that  each  and  every  portion  of  it 
carries  in  its  presence  the  strength  and  terror  of  the 
whole  ;  and  when,  instead  of  that  want  of  concert 
which  renders  the  common  mob  incapable  of  ardu 
ous  enterprises,  it  is  despotically  swayed  by  a  single 
master  mind,  and  may  be  moved  in  array  across  the 
globe. 

I  remember  to  have  seen  the  two  kinds  of  mob 
brought  into  direct  collision.  I  was  present  at  the 
second  great  meeting  of  the  populace  of  London  in 
1819,  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  of  I  know  not  how 
many  thousands,  but  assuredly  a  vast  multitude, 
which  was  gathered  together  in  Smithfield  market. 
The  universal  distress,  as  you  recollect,  was  ex 
treme  ;  it  was  a  short  time  after  the  scenes  at  Maji- 


cliester,  at  which  men's  minds  were  ulcerated  ;— - 
deaths  by  starvation  were  said  not  to  be  rare  ; — ruin 
by  the  stagnation  of  business  was  general ; — and 
some  were  already  brooding  over  the  dark  project  of 
assassinating  the  ministers,  which  was  not  long  after 
matured  by  Thistlewood  and  his  associates  ;  some 
of  whom,  on  the  day  to  which  I  allude,  harangued 
this  excited,  desperate,  starving  assemblage.  When 
I  considered  the  state  of  feeling  prevailing  in  the 
multitude  around  me — when  I  looked  in  their  low 
ering  faces — heard  their  deep,  indignant  exclama 
tions — reflected  on  the  physical  force  concentrated, 
probably  that  of  thirty  or  forty  thousand  able-bodied 
men ;  and  added  to  all  this,  that  they  were  assem 
bled  to  exercise  an  undoubted  privilege  of  British 
citizens ;  I  did  suppose  that  any  small  number  of 
troops,  who  should  attempt  to  interrupt  them,  would 
be  immolated  on  the  spot.  While  I  was  musing  on 
these  things,  and  turning  in  my  mind  the  common 
places  on  the  terrors  of  a  mob,  a  trumpet  was 
heard  to  sound — an  uncertain,  but  a  harsh  and  clam 
orous  blast.  I  looked  that  the  surrounding  stalls 
should  have  furnished  the  unarmed  multitude  at 
least  with  that  weapon,  with  which  Virginius  sacri 
ficed  his  daughter  to  the  liberty  of  Rome ;  I  looked 
that  the  flying  pavement  should  begin  to  darken  the 
air.  Another  blast  is  heard — a  cry  of  "  The  horse- 
guards  ! "  ran  through  the  assembled  thousands ;  the 


23 

orators  on  the  platform  were  struck  mute;  and 
the  whole  of  that  mighty  host  of  starving,  desperate 
men  incontinently  took  to  their  heels ;  in  which,  I 
must  confess — feeling  no  vocation,  in  that  cause  to 
be  faithful  found,  among  the  faithless — I  did  myself 
join  them.  We  had  run  through  the  Old  Bailey 
and  reached  Ludgate  hill,  before  we  found  out,  that 
we  had  been  put  to  flight  by  a  single  mischievous 
tool  of  power,  who  had  come  triumphing  down  the 
opposite  street  on  horseback,  blowing  a  stage-coach 
man's  horn. 

We  have  heard  of  those  midnight  scenes  of  deso 
lation,  when  the  populace  of  some  overgrown  capital, 
exhausted  by  the  extremity  of  political  oppression, 
or  famishing  at  the  gates  of  luxurious  palaces,  or 
kindled  by  some  transport  of  fanatical  zeal,  rushes 
out  to  find  the  victims  of  its  fury ;  the  lurid  glare 
of  torches,  casting  their  gleams  on  faces  dark  with 
rage  ;  the  ominous  din  of  the  alarm  bell,  striking 
with  affright  on  the  broken  visions  of  the  sleepers ; 
the  horrid  yells,  the  thrilling  screams,  the  multi 
tudinous  roar  of  the  living  storm,  as  it  sweeps  on 
ward  to  its  objects ; — but  oh,  the  disciplined,  the 
paid,  the  honored  mob;  not  moving  in  rags  and 
starvation  to  some  act  of  blood  or  plunder;  but 
marching,  in  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  war, 
to  lay  waste  a  feebler  state  ;  or  cantoned  at  home 
among  an  overawed  and  Broken-spirited  people  I 


24 

I  have  read  of  granaries  plundered,  of  castles  sack 
ed,  and  their  inmates  cruelly  murdered,  by  the 
ruthless  hands  of  the  mob.  I  have  read  of  friendly 
states  ravaged,  governments  overturned,  tyrannies 
founded  and  upheld,  proscriptions  executed,  fruit 
ful  regions  turned  into  trampled  deserts,  the  tide  of 
civilization  thrown  back,  and  a  line  of  generations 
cursed,  by  a  well  organized  system  of  military 
force. 

Such  was  the  foundation  in  theory  and  in  prac 
tice  of  all  the  governments,  which  can  be  considered 
as  having  had  a  permanent  existence  in  the  world, 
before  the  Revolution  in  this  country.  There  are 
certainly  shades  of  difference  between  the  oriental 
despotisms,  ancient  and  modern — the  military 
empire  of  Rome — the  feudal  sovereignties  of  the 
middle  ages — and  the  legitimate  monarchies  of  the 
present  day.  Some  were  and  are  more,  and  some 
less,  susceptible  of  melioration  in  practice  ;  and  of 
all  of  them  it  might  perhaps  be  said — being  all  in 
essence  bad, 

"  That,  which  is  best  administered,  is  best." 

In  no  one  of  these  governments,  nor  in  any  govern 
ment,  was  the  truth  admitted,  that  the  only  just 
foundation  of  all  government  is  the  will  of  the  people. 
If  it  ever  occurred  to  the  practical  or  theoretical 
politician,  that  such  an  idea  deserved  examina 
tion,  the  experiment  was  thought  to  have  been  made 


25 

in  the  republics  of  Greece,  and  to  have  failed,  as 
fail  it  certainly  did,  from  the  physical  impossibility 
of  conducting  the  business  of  the  state  by  the  actual 
intervention  of  every  citizen.  Such  a  plan  of  gov 
ernment  must  of  course  fail,  if  for  no  other  reason, 
at  least  for  this,  that  it  would  prevent  the  citizen 
from  pursuing  his  own  business,  which  it  is  the  ob 
ject  of  all  government  to  enable  him  to  do.  It  was 
considered  then  as  settled,  that  the  citizens,  each 
and  all,  could  not  be  the  government ;  some  one  or 
more  must  discharge  its  duties  for  them.  Who 
shall  do  this  ; — how  shall  they  be  designated  ? 

The  first  king  was  a  fortunate  soldier,  and  the  first 
nobleman  was  one  of  his  generals  ;  and  government 
has  passed  by  descent  to  their  posterity,  with  no 
other  interruption,  than  has  taken  place,  when  some 
new  soldier  of  fortune  has  broken  in  upon  this  line 
of  succession,  in  favor  of  himself  and  of  his  generals. 
The  people  have  passed  for  nothing  in  the  plan ; 
and  whenever  it  has  occurred  to  a  busy  genius  to 
put  the  question,  By  what  right  is  government  thus 
exercised  and  transmitted  ?  the  common  answer  has 
been,  By  Divine  right ;  while,  in  times  of  rare  illu 
mination,  men  have  been  consoled  with  the  assur 
ance,  that  such  was  the  original  contract. 

But  a  brighter  day  and  a  better  dispensation  were 
in  reserve.      The  founders  of  the  feudal  system, 
barbarous,  arbitrary,  and  despotic  as  they  were,  and 
4 


28 

profoundly  ignorant  of  political  science,  were  ani 
mated  themselves  with  a  spirit  of  personal  liberty  ; 
out  of  which,  after  ages  of  conflict,  grew  up  a  spe 
cies  of  popular  representation.  In  the  eye  of  the 
feudal  system,  the  king  was  the  first  baron,  and 
standing  within  his  own  sphere,  each  other  baron 
was  as  good  as  the  first.  From  this  important  rela 
tion,  in  which  the  feudal  lords  of  England  claimed 
to  stand  to  their  prince,  arose  the  practice  of  their 
being  consulted  by  him,  in  great  and  difficult  con 
junctures  of  affairs ;  and  hence  the  co-operation  of 
a  grand  council  (subsequently  convened  in  two 
houses  under  the  name  of  parliament}  in  making 
the  laws  and  administering  the  government.  The 
formation  of  this  body  has  proved  a  great  step  in 
the  progress  of  popular  rights  ;  its  influence  has  been 
decisive  in  breaking  the  charm  of  absolute  monar 
chy,  and  giving  to  a  body  partially  eligible  by  the 
people  a  share  in  the  government.  It  has  also  ope 
rated  most  auspiciously  on  liberty,  by  exhibiting  to 
the  world,  on  the  theatre  of  a  conspicuous  nation,  a 
living  example,  that  in  proportion  as  the  rights  and 
interests  of  a  people  are  represented  in  a  govern 
ment,  in  that  degree  the  state  becomes  strong  and 
prosperous.  Thus  far  the  science  and  the  practice 
of  government  had  gone  in  England,  and  here  it 
had  come  to  a  stand.  An  equal  representation,  even 
in  the  house  of  Commons,  was  unthought  of;  or 


27 

thought  of  only  as  one  of  the  exploded  abominations 
of  Cromwell.  It  is  asserted  by  Mr  Hume,  writing 
about  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  and  weighing 
this  subject  with  equal  moderation  and  sagacity, 
that  "  the  tide  has  run  long  and  with  some  rapidity 
to  the  side  of  popular  government,  and  is  just  be 
ginning  to  turn  toward  monarchy."  And  he  main 
tains  that  the  British  constitution  is,  though  slowly, 
yet  gradually  verging  toward  an  absolute  govern 


ment.* 


Such  was  the  state  of  political  science,  when  the 
independence  of  our  country  was  declared,  and  its 
constitution  organized  on  the  basis  of  that  declara 
tion.  The  precedents  in  favour  of  a  popular  system 
were  substantially  these, — the  short-lived  prosperity 
of  the  republics  of  Greece,  where  each  citizen  took 
part  in  the  conduct  of  affairs ;  arid  the  admission 
into  the  British  government,  of  one  branch  of  the 
legislature  nominally  elective,  and  operating,  rather 
by  opinion  than  power,  as  a  partial  check  on  the 
other  branches.  What  lights  these  precedents  gave 
them,  our  fathers  had ;  beyond  this,  they  owed  every 
thing  to  their  own  wisdom  and  courage,  in  daring 
to  carry  out  and  apply  to  the  executive  branch  of 
the  government  that  system  of  delegated  power,  of 
which  the  elements  existed  in  their  own  provincial 
assemblies.  They  assumed,  at  once,  not  as  a  mat- 

*  Hume's  Essays,  vol.  I. 


28 

ter  to  be  reached  by  argumentation,  but  as  the  dic 
tate  of  unaided  reason — as  an  axiom  too  obvious  to 
be  discussed,  though  never  in  practice  applied — that 
where  the  state  is  too  large  to  be  governed  by  an 
actual  assembly  of  all  the  citizens,  the  people  shall 
elect  those,  who  will  act  for  them,  in  making  the 
laws  and  administering  the  government.  They, 
therefore,  laid  the  basis  of  their  constitutions  in  a 
proportionate  delegation  of  power,  from  every  part 
of  the  community  ;  and  regarding  the  declaration  of 
our  Independence  as  the  true  era  of  our  institutions,, 
we  are  authorized  to  assert,  that  from  that  era 
dates  the  establishment  of  the  only  perfect  organi 
zation  of  government,  that  of  a  Representative  Re 
public,  administered  by  persons  freely  chosen  by  the 
people. 

This  plan  of  government  is  therefore,  in  its  theo 
ry,  perfect ;  and  in  its  operation  it  is  perfect  also  ; — 
that  is  to  say,  no  measure  of  policy,  public  or  pri 
vate,  domestic  or  foreign,  can  long  be  pursued, 
against  the  will  of  a  majority  of  the  people.  Far 
ther  than  this  the  wisdom  of  government  cannot  go. 
The  majority  of  the  people  may  err.  Man  collect 
ively,  as  well  as  individually,  is  man  still ;  but  whom 
can  you  more  safely  trust  than  the  majority  of  the 
people  ;  who  is  so  likely  to  be  right,  always  right, 
and  altogether  right,  as  the  collective  majority  of  a 
great  nation,  represented  in  all  its  interests  and  pur 
suits,  and  in  all  its  communities  ? 


29 

Thus  has  been  solved  the  great  problem  in  human 
affairs ;  and  a  frame  of  government,  perfect  in  its 
principles,  has  been  brought  down  from  the  airy  re 
gions  of  Utopia,  and  has  found  '  a  local  habitation 
and  a  name '  in  our  country.  Henceforward  we  have 
tmly  to  strive  that  the  practical  operation  of  our  sys 
tems  may  be  true  to  their  spirit  and  theory.  Hence 
forth  it  may  be  said  of  us,  what  never  could  be 
said  of  any  people,  since  the  world  began, — be 
our  sufferings  what  they  will,  no  one  can  attribute 
them  to  our  frame  of  government ;  no  one  can  point 
out  a  principle  in  our  political  systems,  of  which  he 
has  had  reason  to  complain  ;  no  one  can  sigh  for  a 
change  in  his  country's  institutions,  as  a  boon  to  be 
desired  for  himself  or  for  his  children.  There  is 
not  an  apparent  defect  in  our  constitutions  wThich 
could  be  removed  without  introducing  a  greater 
one ;  nor  a  real  evil,  whose  removal  would  not  be 
rather  a  nearer  approach  to  the  principles  on  which 
they  are  founded,  than  a  departure  from  them. 

And  what,  fellow  citizens,  are  to  be  the  fruits  to 
us  and  to  the  world,  of  the  establishment  of  this 
perfect  system  of  government  ?  I  might  partly 
answer  the  inquiry,  by  reminding  you  what  have 
been  the  fruits  to  us  and  to  the  world  ;  by  inviting 
you  to  compare  our  beloved  country,  as  it  is,  in 
extent  of  settlement,  in  numbers  and  resources,  in 
the  useful  arid  ornamental  arts,  in  the  abundance  of 


30 

the  common  blessings  of  life,  in  the  general  standard 
of  character,  in  the  means  of  education,  in  the  insti 
tutions  for  social  objects,  in  the  various  great  indus 
trious  interests,  in  public  strength  and  national 
respectability,  with  what  it  was  in  all  these  respects 
fifty  years  ago.  But  the  limits  of  this  occasion  will 
not  allow  us  to  engage  in  such  an  enumeration ; 
and  it  will  be  amply  sufficient  for  us  to  contemplate 
in  its  principle,  the  beneficial  operation  on  society, 
of  the  form  of  government  bequeathed  to  us  by  our 
fathers.  This  principle  is  Equality  ;  the  equal  en 
joyment  by  every  citizen  of  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  social  union. 

The  principle  of  all  other  governments  is  monopo 
ly,  exclusion,  favor.  They  secure  great  privileges 
to  a  small  number,  and  necessarily  at  the  expense  of 
all  the  rest  of  the  citizens. 

In  the  keen  conflict  of  minds,  which  preceded  and 
accompanied  the  political  convulsions  of  the  last 
generation,  the  first  principles  of  society  were  can 
vassed  with  a  boldness  and  power  before  unknown 
in  Europe,  and,  from  the  great  principle  that  all 
men  are  equal,  it  was  for  the  first  time  triumphantly 
inferred,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  that  the  will 
of  a  majority  of  the  people  is  the  rule  of  govern 
ment.  To  meet  these  doctrines,  so  appalling  in 
their  tendency  to  the  existing  institutions  of  Europe, 
new  ground  was  also  taken  by  the  champions  of 


31 

those  institutions,  and  particularly  by  a  man,  whose 
genius,  eloquence,  and  integrity  gave  a  currency, 
which  nothing  else  could  have  given,  to  his  splendid 
paradoxes  and  servile  doctrines.  In  one  of  his  re 
nowned  productions,*  this  great  man,  for  great,  even 
111  his  errors,  most  assuredly  he  was,  in  order  to 
meet  the  inference  drawn  from  the  equality  of  man, 
that  the  will  of  the  majority  must  be  the  rule  of 
government,  has  undertaken,  as  he  says,  "  to  fix,  with 
some  degree  of  distinctness,  an  idea  of  what  it  is 
We  mean  when  we  say  the  PEOPLE  ; "  and  in  ful 
filment  of  this  design,  he  lays  it  down,  "  that  in  a 
state  of  rude  nature,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
people.  A  number  of  men,  in  themselves,  can  have 
no  collective  capacity.  The  idea  of  a  people  is  the 
idea  of  a  corporation  ;  it  is  wholly  artificial,  and 
made  like  all  other  legal  fictions,  by  common  agree 
ment." 

"  In  a  state  of  rude  nature,  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  people  !  "  I  would  fain  learn  in  what  corner  of 
the  earth,  rude  or  civilized,  men  are  to  be  found, 
who  are  not  a  people,  more  or  less  improved.  "  A 
number  of  men  in  themselves  have  no  collective; 
capacity ! "  I  would  gladly  be  told  where,  in  what 
region,  I  will  not  say  of  geography,  I  know  there  is 
none  such,  but  of  poetry  or  romance,  a  number  of 
men  has  been  placed,  by  nature,  each  standing  alone. 

*  The  Appeal  from  the  New  to  the  Old  Whigs, 


32 

and  not  bound  by  any  of  those  ties  of  blood,  affinity, 
and  language,  which  form  the  rudiments  of  a  collect 
ive  capacity.  "  The  idea  of  a  people  is  the  idea  of 
a  corporation  ;  it  is  wholly  artificial,  and  made  like 
all  other  legal  fictions,  by  common  agreement." 
Indeed,  is  the  social  principle  artificial  ?  is  the  gift 
of  articulate  speech,  which  enables  man  to  impart 
his  condition  to  man,  the  organized  sense,  which 
enables  him  to  comprehend  what  is  imparted  ?  is 
that  sympathy,  which  subjects  our  opinions  and  feel 
ings,  and  through  them  our  conduct,  to  the  influence 
of  others  and  their  conduct  to  our  influence  ?  is  that 
chain  of  cause  and  effect,  which  makes  our  charac 
ters  receive  impressions  from  the  generations  before 
us,  and  puts  it  in  our  power,  by  a  good  or  bad  pre 
cedent,  to  distil  a  poison  or  a  balm  into  the  characters 
of  posterity  ?  are  these,  indeed,  all  by-laws  of  a 
corporation  ?  Are  all  the  feelings  of  ancestry,  pos 
terity,  and  fellow-citizenship  ;  all  the  charm,  venera 
tion,  and  love,  bound  up  in  the  name  of  country; 
the  delight,  the  enthusiasm,  with  which  we  seek  out, 
after  the  lapse  of  generations  and  ages,  the  traces  of 
our  fathers'  bravery  or  wisdom,  are  these  all  "a 
legal  fiction  ?  "  Is  it,  indeed,  a  legal  fiction,  that 
moistens  the  eye  of  the  solitary  traveller,  when  he 
meets  a  countryman  in  a  foreign  land  ?  Is  it  a 
"common agreement,"  that  gives  its  meaning  to  my 
mother  tongue,  and  enables  me  to  speak  to  the  hearts 


of  my  kindred  men,  beyond  the  rivers  and  beyond 
the  mountains?  Yes,  r^is  a  common  agreement; 
Tecorded  on  the  same  registry  with  that,  which 
marshals  the  winged  nations,  that, 

In  common,  ranged  in  figure,  wedge  their  way, 
Intelligent  of  seasons  ;  and  set  forth 
Their  aery  caravan,  high  over  seas 
Flying,  and  over  lands,  with  mutual  wing 
Easing  their  flight. 

The  mutual  dependence  of  man  on  man,  family 
on  family,  interest  on  interest,  is  but  a  chapter  in 
the  great  law,  not  of  corporations,  but  of  nature. 
The  law,  by  which  commerce,  manufactures,  and 
agriculture  support  each  other,  is  the  same  law,  in 
virtue  of  which  the  thirsty  earth  owes  its  fertility  to 
the  rivers  and  the  rains ;  and  the  clouds  derive  their 
high-travelling  waters  from  the  rising  vapours  ;  and 
the  ocean  is  fed  from  the  secret  springs  of  the 
mountains  ;  and  the  plant  that  grows  derives  its  in 
crease  from  the  plant  that  decays ;  and  all  subsist  and 
thrive,  not  by  themselves  but  by  others,  in  the  great 
political  economy  of  nature.  The  necessary  cohe 
sion  of  the  parts  of  the  political  system  is  no  more 
artificial,  than  the  gravity  of  the  natural  system,  in 
which  planet  is  bound  to  planet,  and  all  to  the  sun, 
and  the  sun  to  all.  Insulate  an  interest  in  society, 
a  family,  or  a  man,  and  all  the  faculties  and  powers 
they  possess  will  avail  them  little  toward  the  great 
5 


34 

objects  of  life ;  in  like  manner,  as  not  all  the  myste 
riously  combined  elements  of  the  earth  around  and 
beneath  us,  the  light  and  volatile  airs,  that  fill  the 
atmosphere  ;  not  the  electric  fluid,  which  lies  con 
densed  and  embattled  in  its  cloudy  magazines,  or 
subtilely  diffused  through  creation  ;  not  the  volcanic 
fires  that  rage  in  the  earth's  bosom,  nor  all  her  mines 
of  coal,  and  nitre,  and  sulphur ;  nor  fountains  of 
naphtha,  petroleum,  or  asphaltus ; — not  all,  combined 
and  united,  afford  one  beam  of  that  common  light, 
which  sends  man  forth  to  his  labors,  and  which  is 
the  sun's  contribution  to  the  system,  in  which  we 
live.  And  yet  the  great  natural  system,  the,  political, 
intellectual,  moral  system,  is  artificial,  is  a  legal 
fiction !  "  O  that  mine  enemy  had  said  it,"  the 
admirers  of  Mr  Burke  may  well  exclaim.  O  that 
some  impious  Voltaire,  some  ruthless  Rousseau  had 
uttered  it.  Had  uttered  it !  Rousseau  did  utter  the 
same  thing  ;  and  more  rebuked  than  any  other  error 
of  this  misguided  genius,  is  his  doctrine  of  the  Social 
Contract,  of  which  Burke  has  reasserted,  and  more 
than  reasserted  the  principle,  in  the  sentences  I  have 
quoted. 

But  no,  fellow  citizens;  political  society  exists 
by  the  law  of  nature.  Man  is  formed  for  it ;  every 
man  is  formed  for  it ;  every  man  has  an  equal  right 
to  its  privileges ;  and  to  be  deprived  of  them,  under 
whatever  pretence,  is  so  far  to  be  reduced  to  slavery. 


35 

The  authors  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  saw 
this,  and  taught  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal. 
On  this  principle,  our  constitutions  rest ;  and  no 
constitution  can  bind  a  people  on  any  other  princi 
ple.  No  original  contract,  that  gives  away  this 
right,  can  bind  any  but  the  parties  to  it.  My  fore 
fathers  could  not,  if  they  had  wished,  have  stipulated 
to  their  king,  that  his  children  should  rule  over  their 
children.  By  the  introduction  of  this  principle  of 
equality  it  is,  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
has  at  once  effected  a  before  unimagined  extension 
of  social  privileges.  Grant  that  no  new  blessing 
(which,  however,  can  by  no  means  with  truth  be 
granted)  be  introduced  into  the  world  on  this  plan 
of  equality,  still  it  will  have  discharged  the  inesti 
mable  office  of  communicating,  in  equal  proportion, 
to  all  the  citizens,  those  privileges  of  the  social 
union,  which  were  before  partitioned  in  an  invidious 
gradation,  profusely  among  the  privileged  orders,  and 
parsimoniously  among  all  the  rest.  Let  me  instance 
in  the  right  of  suffrage.  The  enjoyment  of  this 
right  enters  largely  into  the  happiness  of  the  social 
condition.  I  do  not  mean,  that  it  is  necessary  to 
our  happiness  actually  to  exercise  this  right  at  every 
election ;  but  I  say,  the  right  itself  to  give  our  voice 
in  the  choice  of  public  servants,  and  the  management 
of  public  affairs,  is  so  precious,  so  inestimable,  that 
there  is  not  a  citizen  who  hears  me,  that  would  not 


36 

lay  down  his  life  to  assert  it.  This  is  a  right  un 
known  in  every  country  but  ours ;  I  say  unknown* 
because  in  England,  whose  institutions  make  the 
nearest  approach  to  a  popular  character,  the  elective 
suffrage  is  not  only  incredibly  unequal  and  capricious 
in  its  distribution  ;  but  extends,  after  all,  only  to 
the  choice  of  a  minority  of  one  house  of  the  legisla 
ture.  Thus  then  the  people  of  this  country  are,  by 
their  constitutions  of  government,  endowed  with  a 
new  source  of  enjoyment,  elsewhere  almost  un 
known  ;  a  great  and  substantial  happiness ;  an  un 
alloyed  happiness.  Most  of  the  desirable  things  of 
life  bear  a  high  price  in  the  world's  market.  Every 
thing  usually  deemed  a  great  good,  must,  for  its 
attainment,  be  weighed  down,  in  the  opposite  scale, 
with  what  is  as  usually  deemed  a  great  evil — labor, 
care,  danger.  It  is  only  the  unbought,  spontaneous, 
essential  circumstances  of  our  nature  and  condition, 
that  yield  a  liberal  enjoyment.  Oar  religious  hopes, 
intellectual  meditations,  social  sentiments,  family 
affections,  political  privileges,  these  are  springs 
of  unpurchased  happiness ;  and  to  condemn  men  to 
live  under  an  arbitrary  government,  is  to  cut  them 
off  from  nearly  all  the  satisfactions,  which  nature 
designed  should  flow  from  those  principles  within 
us,  by  which  a  tribe  of  kindred  men  is  constituted 
a  people. 


37 

But  it  is  not  merely  an  extension  to  all  the 
members  of  society,  of  those  blessings,  which,  under 
other  systems,  are  monopolized  by  a  few  ; — great 
and  positive  improvements,  I  feel  sure,  are  destined 
to  flow  from  the  introduction  of  the  republican  sys 
tem.  The  first  of  these  will  be,  to  make  wars  less 
frequent,  and  finally  to  cause  them  to  cease  alto 
gether.  It  was  not  a  republican,  it  was  the  subject 
of  a  monarchy,  and  no  patron  of  novelties,  who  said, 

War  is  a  game,  which,  were  their  subjects  wise, 
Kings  would  not  play  at. 

A  great  majority  of  the  wars,  which  have  desolat 
ed  mankind,  have  grown  either  out  of  the  disput 
ed  titles  and  rival  claims  of  sovereigns,  or  their 
personal  character,  particularly  their  ambition,  or 
the  character  of  their  favorites,  or  some  other 
circumstance  evidently  incident  to  a  form  of  govern 
ment  which  withholds  from  the  people  the  ultimate 
control  of  affairs.  And  the  more  civilized  men 
grow,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  more  universally 
is  this  the  case.  In  the  barbarous  ages  the  people 
pursued  war  as  an  occupation  ;  its  plunder  was  more 
profitable,  than  their  labor  at  home,  in  the  state  of 
general  insecurity.  In  modern  times,  princes  raise 
their  soldiers  by  conscription,  their  sailors  by  impress 
ment,  and  drive  them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet 
and  dirk,  into  the  battles  they  fight  for  reasons 
pf  state.  But  in  a  republic,  where  the  people,  by 


38 

their  representatives,  must  vote  the  declaration  of 
war,  and  afterwards  raise  the  means  of  its  support, 
none  but  wars  of  just  and  necessary  defence  can  be 
waged.  Republics,  we  are  told,  indeed,  are  ambi 
tious, — a  seemingly  wise  remark,  devoid  of  meaning. 
Man  is  ambitious  ;  and  the  question  is,  where  will 
his  ambition  be  most  likely  to  drive  his  country  into 
war ;  in  a  monarchy  where  he  has  but  to  '  cry  havoc, 
and  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war,'  or  in  a  republic,  where 
he  must  get  the  vote  of  a  strong  majority  of  the 
nation  ?  Let  history  furnish  the  answer.  The  book, 
which  promised  you,  in  its  title,  a  picture  of  the  pro 
gress  of  the  human  family,  turns  out  to  be  a  record, 
not  of  the  human  family,  but  of  the  Macedonian 
family,  the  Julian  family,  the  families  of  York  and 
Lancaster,  of  Lorraine  and  Bourbon.  We  need  not 
go  to  the  ancient  annals  to  confirm  this  remark.  We 
need  not  speak  of  those,  who  reduced  Asia  and 
Africa,  in  the  morning  of  the  world,  to  a  vassalage 
from  which  they  have  never  recovered.  We  need 
not  dwell  on  the  more  notorious  exploits  of  the 
Alexanders  and  the  Caesars,  the  men  who  wept  for 
other  worlds  to  visit  with  the  pestilence  of  their 
arms.  We  need  not  run  down  the  bloody  line  of 
the  dark  ages,  when  the  barbarous  North  disgorged 
her  ambitious  savages  on  Europe,  or  when  at  a  later 
period,  barbarous  Europe  poured  back  her  holy 
ruffians  on  Asia  ;  we  need  but  look  at  the  dates  of 


39 

modern  history, — the  history  of  civilized,  balanced 
Europe.  We  here  behold  the  ambition  of  Charles  V 
involving  the  continent  of  Europe  in  war,  for  the 
first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  fiendlike 
malignity  of  Catherine  de'  Medici  and  her  kindred 
distracting  it  the  other  half.  We  see  the  haughty 
and  cheerless  bigotry  of  Philip,  persevering  in  a 
conflict  of  extermination  for  one  whole  age  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  darkening  the  English  channel 
with  his  armada ;  while  France  prolongs  her  civil 
dissensions,  because  Henry  IV  was  the  twenty- 
second  cousin  of  Henry  III.  We  enter  the  seven 
teenth  century,  and  again  find  the  hereditary  pride 
and  bigotry  of  the  House  of  Austria  wasting  Ger 
many  and  the  neighbouring  powers  with  the  Thirty 
Years'  war ;  and  before  the  peace  of  Westphalia  is 
concluded,  England  is  plunged  into  the  fiery  trial 
of  her  militant  liberties.  Contemporaneously,  the 
civil  wars  are  revived  in  France,  and  the  kingdom 
is  blighted  by  the  passions  of  Mazarin.  The  civil 
wars  are  healed,  and  the  atrocious  career  of  Louis 
XIV  begins  ;  a  half  century  of  bloodshed  and  woe, 
that  stands  in  revolting  contrast  with  the  paltry 
pretences  of  his  wars.  At  length  the  peace  of 
Ryswic  is  made  in  1697,  and  bleeding  Europe 
throws  off  the  harness  and  lies  down  like  an  ex 
hausted  giant  to  repose.  In  three  years,  the  testa 
ment  of  a  doating  Spanish  king  gives  the  signal 


40 

for  the  S'lccession  war ;  till  a  cup  of  tea  spilt  on 
Mrs  Masham's  apron,  restores  peace  to  the  af 
flicted  kingdoms.  Meantime  the  madman  of  the 
North  had  broken  loose  upon  the  world,  and  was 
running  his  frantic  round.  Peace  at  length  is  restor 
ed,  and  with  one  or  two  short  wars,  it  remains 
unbroken,  till,  in  1740,  the  will  of  Charles  VI  oc 
casions  another  testamentary  contest ;  and  in  the 
gallant  wrords  of  the  stern  but  relenting  moralist, 

The  queen,  the  beauty,  sets  the  world  in  arms. 

Eight  years  are  this  time  sufficient  to  exhaust  the 
combatants,  and  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  is 
concluded;  but,  in  1755,  the  old  French  war  is 
kindled  in  our  own  wilderness,  and  through  the 
united  operation  of  the  monopolizing  spirit  of 
England,  the  party  intrigues  of  France,  and  the  am 
bition  of  Frederic,  spread  throughout  Europe.  The 
wars  of  the  last  generation  I  need  not  name,  nor 
dwell  on  that  signal  retribution,  by  which  the  polit 
ical  ambition  of  the  cabinets  at  length  conjured  up  the 
military  ambition  of  the  astonishing  individual,  who 
seems,  in  our  day,  to  have  risen  out  of  the  ranks  of  the 
people,  to  chastise  the  privileged  orders  with  that 
iron  scourge,  with  which  they  had  so  long  afflicted 
mankind  ;  to  gather  with  his  strong  Plebeian  hands 
the  fragrance  of  those  palmy  honors,  which  they 
had  reared  for  three  centuries  in  the  bloody  gardens 
of  their  royalty.  It  may  well  be  doubted,  whether, 


41 

under  a  government  like  ours,  one  of  all  these  con 
tests  would  have  taken  place.  Those  that  arose  from 
disputed  titles,  and  bequests  of  thrones,  could  not  of 
course  have  existed ;  and  making  every  allowance 
for  the  effect  of  popular  delusion,  it  seems  to  me 
not  possible,  that  a  representative  government  would 
have  embarked  in  any  of  the  wars  of  ambition  and 
aggrandizement,  which  fill  up  the  catalogue. 

Who  then  are  these  families  and  individuals — 
these  royal  lanista — by  whom  the  nations  are  kept 
in  training  for  a  long  gladiatorial  combat  ?  Are 
they  better,  wiser  than  we  ?  Look  at  them  in  life ; 
what  are  they  ?  "  Kings  are  fond,"  says  Mr.  Burke, 
no  scoffer  at  thrones,  "  Kings  are  fond  of  low  com 
pany."  *  What  are  they  when  gone  ?  Expende  Han- 
nibalem.  Enter  the  great  cathedrals  of  Europe,  and 
contemplate  the  sepulchres  of  the  men,  who  claim 
ed  to  be  the  lords  of  each  successive  generation. 
Question  your  own  feelings,  as  you  behold  where 
the  Plantagenets  and  Tudors,  the  Stuarts  and 
those  of  Brunswick,  lie  mournfully  huddled  up  in 
the  chapels  of  Westminster  Abbey ;  and  compare 
those  feelings  with  the  homage  you  pay  to  Heaven's 
aristocracy,— the  untitled  learning,  genius,  and  wit 
that  moulder  by  their  side.  Count  over  the  sixty- 
six  emperors  and  princes  of  the  Austrian  house,  that 
lie  gathered  in  the  dreary  pomp  of  monumental  mar- 
*  Speech  on  Economical  Reform. 

6 


42 

ble,  in  the  vaults  of  the  Capuchins  at  Vienna  ;  and 
weigh  the  worth  of  their  dust  against  the  calamities 
of  their  Peasants'  war,  their  Thirty  Years'  war, 
their  Succession  war,  their  wars  to  enforce  the  Prag 
matic  Sanction,  and  of  all  the  other  uncouth  preten 
ces  for  destroying  mankind,  with  which  they  have 
plagued  the  world. 

But  the  cessation  of  wars,  to  which  we  look  for 
ward  as  the  result  of  the  gradual  diffusion  of  repub 
lican  government,  is  but  the  commencement  of  the 
social  improvements,  which  cannot  but  flow  from 
the  same  benignant  source.     It  has  been  justly  said 
that  he  was  a  great  benefactor  of  mankind,  who 
could  make  two  blades  of  grass  grow,  where  one 
grew  before.     But  our  fathers,  our  fathers  were  the 
benefactors  of  mankind,  who  brought  into  action 
such  a  vast  increase  of  physical,  political,  and  moral 
energy ;  who  have  made*  not  two  citizens  to  live 
only,  but  hundreds,  yea,  unnumbered  thousands,  to 
live  and  to  prosper  in  regions,  which  but  for  their 
achievements  would  have  remained  for  ages  unset 
tled,  and  to  enjoy  those  rights  of  men,  which  but 
for   their  institutions  would  have  continued  to  be 
arrogated,  as  the  exclusive  inheritance  of  a  few.     I 
appeal  to  the  fact.     I  ask  any  sober  judge  of  po 
litical  probability  to  tell  me,  whether  more  has  not 
been  done  to  extend  the  domain  of  civilization,  in 
fifty  years,  since  the  declaration  of  independence, 


43 

than  would  have  been  done  in  five  centuries  of 
continued  colonial  subjection.  It  is  not  even  a 
matter  of  probability;  the  king  in  council  had 
adopted  it,  as  a  maxim  of  his  American  policy,  that 
no  settlements  in  this  country  should  be  made  be 
yond  the  Alieganies  ; — that  the  design  of  Providence 
in  spreading  out  the  fertile  valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
should  not  be  fulfilled. 

1  know  that  it  is  said,  in  palliation  of  the  restric 
tive  influence  of  European  governments,  that  they 
are  as  good  as  their  subjects  can  bear.  I  know  it  is 
said,  that  it  would  be  useless  and  pernicious  to  call 
on  the  half  savage  and  brutified  peasantry  of  many 
countries,  to  take  a  share  in  the  administration 
of  affairs,  by  electing  or  being  elected  to  office. 
I  know  they  are  unfit  for  it ;  it  is  the  very  curse  of 
the  system.  What  is  it  that  unfits  them  ?  What  is 
it  that  makes  slavish  labour,  and  slavish  ignorance, 
and  slavish  stupidity,  their  necessary  heritage? 
Are  they  not  made  of  the  same  Caucasian  clay  ? 
Have  they  not  five  senses,  the  same  faculties,  the 
same  passions  ?  And  is  it  any  thing  but  an  aggrava 
tion  of  the  vice  of  arbitrary  governments,  that  they 
first  deprive  men  of  their  rights,  and  then  unfit 
them  to  exercise  those  rights  ;  profanely  construing 
the  effect  into  a  justification  of  the  evil? 

The  influence  of  our  institutions  on  foreign  na 
tions  is — next  to  their  effect  on  our  own  condition — 


44 

the  most  interesting  question  we  can  contemplate. 
With  our  example  of  popular  government  before 
their  eyes,  the  nations  of  the  earth  will  not  event 
ually  be  satisfied  with  any  other.  With  the  French 
revolution  as  a  beacon  to  guide  them,  they  will 
learn,  we  may  hope,  not  to  embark  too  rashly  on 
the  mounting  waves  of  reform.  The  cause,  how 
ever,  of  popular  government  is  rapidly  gaining  in 
the  world.  In  England,  education  is  carrying  it 
wide  and  deep  into  society.  On  the  continent,  writ 
ten  constitutions  of  governments,  nominally  repre 
sentative, — though  as  yet,  it  must  be  owned,  nom 
inally  so  alone, — are  adopted  in  eight  or  ten,  late 
absolute  monarchies  ;  and  it  is  not  without  good 
grounds  that  we  may  trust,  that  the  indifference 
with  which  the  Christian  powers  contemplate  the 
sacrifice  of  Greece,  and  their  crusade  against  the 
constitutions  of  Spain,  Piedmont,  and  Naples,  will 
satisfy  the  mass  of  thinking  men  in  Europe,  that  it 
is  time  to  put  an  end  to  these  cruel  delusions,  and 
take  their  own  government  into  their  own  hands. 

But  the  great  triumphs  of  constitutional  freedom, 
to  which  our  independence  has  furnished  the  exam 
ple,  have  been  witnessed  in  the  southern  portion  of 
our  hemisphere.  Sunk  to  the  last  point  of  colonial 
degradation,  they  have  risen  at  once  into  the  organ 
ization  of  free  republics.  Their  struggle  has  been 
arduous ;  and  eighteen  years  of  chequered  fortune 


45 

have  not  yet  brought  it  to  a  close.  But  we  must 
not  infer,  from  their  prolonged  agitation,  that  their 
independence  is  uncertain ;  that  they  have  prema 
turely  put  on  the  toga  virilis  of  Freedom.  They 
have  not  begun  too  soon ;  they  have  more  to  do. 
Our  war  of  independence  was  shorter  ; — happily 
we  were  contending  with  a  government,  that  could 
not,  like  that  of  Spain,  pursue  an  interminable  and 
hopeless  contest,  in  defiance  of  the  people's  will. 
Our  transition  to  a  mature  and  well  adjusted  consti 
tution  was  more  prompt  than  that  of  our  sister  re 
publics  ;  for  the  foundations  had  long  been  settled, 
the  preparation  long  made.  And  when  we  consider 
that  it  is  our  example,  which  has  aroused  the  spirit 
of  Independence  from  California  to  Cape  Horn  ; 
that  the  experiment  of  liberty,  if  it  had  failed  with 
us,  most  surely  would  not  have  been  attempted  by 
them  ;  that  even  now  our  counsels  and  acts  will 
operate  as  powerful  precedents  in  this  great  family 
of  republics,  we  learn  the  importance  of  the  post 
which  Providence  has  assigned  us  in  the  world.  A 
wise  and  harmonious  administration  of  the  public 
affairs, — a  faithful,  liberal,  and  patriotic  exercise  of 
the  private  duties  of  the  citizen, — while  they  secure 
our  happiness  at  home,  will  diffuse  a  healthful  influ 
ence  through  the  channels  of  national  communica 
tion,  and  serve  the  cause  of  liberty  beyond  the 
Equator  and  the  Andes.  When  we  show  an  united. 


46 

conciliatory,  and  imposing  front  to  their  rising  states, 
we  show  them,  better  than  sounding  eulogies  can 
do,  the  true  aspect  of  an  independent  republic. 
We  give  them  a  living  example  that  the  fireside 
policy  of  a  people  is  like  that  of  the  individual  man. 
As  the  one,  commencing  in  the  prudence,  order,  and 
industry  of  the  private  circle,  extends  itself  to  all 
the  duties  of  social  life,  of  the  family,  the  neigh 
bourhood,  the  country  ;  so  the  true  domestic  policy 
of  the  republic,  beginning  in  the  wise  organization 
of  its  own  institutions,  pervades  its  territories  with  a 
vigilant,  prudent,  temperate  administration ;  and  ex 
tends  the  hand  of  cordial  interest  to  all  the  friendly 
nations,  especially  to  those  which  are  of  the  house 
hold  of  liberty. 

It  is  in  this  way,  that  we  are  to  fulfil  our  destiny 
in  the  world.  The  greatest  engine  of  moral  power, 
which  human  nature  knows,  is  an  organized,  pros 
perous  state.  All  that  man,  in  his  individual  capa 
city,  can  do — all  that  he  can  effect  by  his  fraterni 
ties — by  his  ingenious  discoveries  and  wonders  of 
art, — or  by  his  influence  over  others — is  as  nothing, 
compared  with  the  collective,  perpetuated  influence 
on  human  affairs  and  human  happiness  of  a  well 
constituted,  powerful  commonwealth.  It  blesses 
generations  with  its  sweet  influence  ; — even  the 
barren  earth  seems  to  pour  out  its  fruits  under  a 
system  where  property  is  secure,  while  her  fairest 


47 

gardens  are  blighted  by  despotism  ; — men,  thinking, 
reasoning  men,  abound  beneath  its  benignant  sway ; 
— nature  enters  into  a  beautiful  accord,  a  better, 
purer  asiento  with  man,  and  guides  an  industrious 
citizen  to  every  rood  of  her  smiling  wastes  ; — and 
we  see,  at  length,  that  what  has  been  called  a  state 
of  nature,  has  been  most  falsely,  calumniousy  so 
denominated  ;  that  the  nature  of  man  is  neither  that 
of  a  savage,  a  hermit,  nor  a  slave  ;  but  that  of  a 
member  of  a  well  ordered  family,  that  of  a  good 
neighbour,  a  free  citizen,  a  well  informed,  good 
man,  acting  with  others  like  him.  This  is  the  les 
son  which  is  taught  in  the  charter  of  our  indepen 
dence  ;  this  is  the  lesson,  which  our  example  is  to 
teach  the  world. 

The  epic  poet  of  Rome — the  faithful  subject  of 
an  absolute  prince — in  unfolding  the  duties  and  des 
tinies  of  his  countrymen,  bids  them  look  down  with 
disdain  on  the  polished  and  intellectual  arts  of 
Greece,  and  deem  their  arts  to  be 

To  rule  the  nations  with  imperial  sway  ; 

To  spare  the  tribes  that  yield ;  fight  down  the  proud ; 

And  force  the  mood  of  peace  upon  the  world. 

A  nobler  counsel  breathes  from  the  charter  of  our  in 
dependence  ;  a  happier  province  belongs  to  our  free 
republic.  Peace  we  would  extend,  but  by  persua 
sion  and  example, — the  moral  force,  by  which  alone 
it  can  prevail  among  the  nations.  Wars  we  may 


48 

encounter,  but  it  is  in  the  sacred  character  of  the  in 
jured  and  the  wronged  ;  to  raise  the  trampled  rights 
of  humanity  from  the  dust ;  to  rescue  the  mild  form 
of  Liberty,  from  her  abode  among  the  prisons  and 
the  scaffolds  of  the  elder  world,  and  to  seat  her  in 
the  chair  of  state  among  her  adoring  children  ; — to 
give  her  beauty  for  ashes  ;  a  healthful  action  for  her 
cruel  agony  ;  to  put  at  last  a  period  to  her  warfare 
on  earth  ;  to  tear  her  star-spangled  banner  from  the 
perilous  ridges  of  battle,  and  plant  it  on  the  rock 
of  ages.  There  be  it  fixed  for  ever, — the  power  of 
a  free  people  slumbering  in  its  folds,  their  peace 
reposing  in  its  shade ! 


Note  to  page  1 1 . 

ABOUT  the  time  these  words  were  uttered,  the  great  man, 
to  whom  they  refer,  breathed  his  last,  ten  minutes  before  one 
o'clock  on  the  4th  of  July,  1826  ;  and  toward  the  close  of 
the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  the  other  venerated  patriot, 
alluded  to,  also  expired. 

To  have  been  one  of  those,  whose  names  stand  subscribed 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  is  of  itself  a  rare  felicity  ; 
to  have  lived  to  witness,  at  the  close  of  the  half  century  from 
the   declaration,   the    prosperous   condition   of    Independent 
America,  is  an  eminent  favor  of  Providence,  beyond    the 
reach  of  expectation,  and  almost  beyond  the  course  of  Nature. 
But  history  can  scarce  furnish  a  coincidence  so  nearly  miracu 
lous,  as  that  the  individuals,  who  stood  first  and  second  on  the 
Committee  of  five  appointed  to  prepare  the  Declaration,  who 
were  the  two  persons  exclusively  designated  by  their  coir 
leagues  for  this  most  honorable  trust,  and  who,  after  filling,  as 
associates  or  competitors,  the  highest  offices  in  the  country, 
had  long  cultivated  an  honorable  intercourse  in  retirement, 
should  have  passed  out  of  the  world  together,  on  the  Fiftieth 
Anniversary  of  the  day,  which  their  Declaration  had  render 
ed  immortal  for  themselves,  for  their  country,  and  for  every 
free  people.     That  these  venerated  Fathers  of  their  Country 
retained  to  the  last  that  possession  of  reason,  which  enabled 
them  to  feel  the  signal  favor  of  Providence,  that  was  vouch- 
7 


50 

safed  to  them,  is  a  wonderful  circumstance  at  their  advanced 
age,  which  fills  up  this  picture  of  human  felicity.  When  Mr 
Adams,  then  near  his  end,  was  informed  by  his  attendants  that 
the  firing  of  cannons  and  ringing  of  bells  denoted  the  Fourth 
of  July,  instead  of  calling  it  a  "  glorious  day,"  as  he  was 
wont  to  do,  he  was  heard  by  those  around  him,  for  the  first 
time,  and  almost  with  his  last  breath,  to  call  it  "  a  great  and 
a  good  day  !"  It  is  impossible  to  contemplate  a  scene  like  this, 
and  compare  it  with  his  letter  written  from  Philadelphia  on  the 
5th  of  July,  1776,  without  emotions  of  a  higher  cast,  than 
those  of  astonishment  and  admiration.  "  Yesterday,"  he  then 
wrote  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  "  the  greatest  question  was 
decided  which  was  ever  decided  among  men.  A  resolution 
was  passed  unanimously,  '  That  these  United  States  are  and 
of  right  ought  to  be  Free  and  Independent  States.' 

"The  day  has  passed.  The  fourth  of  July,  1776,  will  be 
a  memorable  epoch  in  the  history  of  America.  I  am  apt  to 
believe,  it  will  be  celebrated  by  succeeding  generations  as  the 
Great  Anniversary  Festival.  It  ought  to  be  commemorated  as 
the  day  of  deliverance,  by  solemn  acts  of  devotion  to  Al 
mighty  God.  It  ought  to  be  solemnized  with  pomps,  shows, 
games,  sports,  guns,  bells,  bonfires,  and  illuminations,  from  one 
end  of  the  continent  to  the  other,  from  this  time  for  ever  !  You 
will  think  me  transported  with  enthusiasm,  but  I  am  not.  I  am 
well  aware  of  the  toil,  blood,  and  treasure  it  will  cost  to  main 
tain  this  Declaration,  and  support  and  defend  these  States ; 
yet,  through  all  the  gloorn,  I  can  see  a  ray  of  light  and  glory. 
t  can  see  that  the  end  is  worth  more  than  all  the  means ;  and 
that  posterity  will  triumph,  although  you  and  I  may  rue — 
which  I  hope  we  shall  not.'* 


51 

It  is  stated,  in  the  accounts  of  the  last  days  of  Mr  Jefferson, 
that  his  favorite  exclamation,  as  he  drew  near  his  departure, 
was,  Nunc  dimittis,  Domine,  "  Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  ser 
vant  depart  in  peace."  On  the  day  before  his  death,  being 
sensibly  near  his  end,  on  inquiring  what  day  of  the  month  it 
was,  and  being  answered,  "  The  third  of  July,"  he  expressed  a 
desire  to  live  till  the  next  day,  "  that  he  might  breathe  the  air 
of  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  ! " 

There  have  certainly  been  times,  in  the  history  of  our  coun 
try,  when  the  political  opposition  between  these  two  venerable 
men  was  deemed  a  source  of  great*  evil,  in  its  immediate  in 
fluence  on  the  community.  In  reference  to  their  own  charac 
ters,  to  their  personal  history,  and  the  moral  influence  of  their 
example,  their  political  contention  can  now  no  longer  be 
regretted.  Nothing  less  than  so  keen  a  struggle  between  men, 
who  had  been  united  heart  and  hand,  in  such  a  cause ;  and 
nothing  less  than  a  long  and  honorable  friendship  subsequent 
ly  existing  between  men  who  had  thus  contended,  would  have 
sufficed  to  read  a  salutary  lesson  of  mutual  forbearance  and 
respect  to  the  contending  political  interests  of  the  day,  and  of 
mild  expostulation  to  those,  who,  imitating  these  illustrious  men 
in  nothing  but  their  dissensions,  mistakenly  think  to  show 
respect  to  their  memory,  by  endeavouring  to  revive  and  per 
petuate  them. 


14  DAY  USE 

™*  TO  DESK  FROM  WHlSi  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


LD  21A-50w-4  '60 
(A9562slO)476B 


.General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


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